Why Did You Come To Thailand?

[armycw4ret]

I think part of the underlying tone of the question is, 'what has kept you in Thailand so far' as well.
To recap: My Thai wife got me here. It was my decision, not hers. Something I have never regretted.
Why am I still here? A variety of reasons.

I can empathise with most of that. No language skills but the rest I get

Yes +1, excellent post and points Vincent although we may differ in the Cowboy department a tad

+ Spitfire's last post, particularly about those of us with Thai partners and them being happy here. I think generally speaking most farang's that would prefer to be in their home country/a.n.other country still adapt and are happy'ish here and can call it home, whereas I've never really known a single Thai lady who was 'at home' in the UK, they were all there 'temporary' counting the days until they 'went home'. After living here rather than holidaying and properly seeing how 'family/close-friends-from-the-village' orientated they are, I appreciate it. How dull it must have seemed for the wife in her 4 years living near Heathrow when you had to drive to a pub to see mates inbetween once or twice weekly visits to the house by someone for a few hours, compared to now with a constant stream of family/friends walking in and out the house without having to knock all day long. Literally 6-12 visits a day by Buriram people from within a half mile radius. It did used to annoy me in maybe the first year but now I actually enjoy it and it adds to the day, probably helps that 90% of them are females under 35 , and there's no scrounging to be seen they all seem to take turns in churning out bucketloads of unedible food and doing the hosting. These people can not eat unless there's a minimum half a dozen of them sitting in a circle on the floor screaming at each other, the racket can be a downer if I'm trying to do something important/watch Tom & Jerry, I used to spend my days on construction sites so I'm just not conditioned to this level of noise

Probably the main reasons I wanted to come here was the nightlife, and I don't mean just the bargirl scene but generally how the place is alive and buzzing (even HH which isn't exactly the party capital of Thailand), Thais just seem to be up for it every night. It's a massive plus for me and mates I socialise with being able to jump on the bike at midnight/1am knowing there'll be loads going on 5 minutes away and I'm not just talking about the bargirl areas, but I get the impression that the majority of the outgoing type of Thai youngsters in the town all go out around 10pm-midnight... every night of the week. There's always something going on in the usual spots and it's all welcoming and trouble free, if I've seen 3 incidences a year I can't recall them now... well excluding Ally


SJ

[VincentD]

Yes +1, excellent post and points Vincent although we may differ in the Cowboy department a tad

SJ, don't get me wrong, I still appreciate the female form, in Cowboy perhaps the state of undress can be a bit extreme for some . Not that it goes unappreciated. Bouncing a couple of nubile young ladies on your knee for the cost of a beer and a little bit is hard to beat. I just tend not to indulge any more.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Entertainment wise, yes, there is some really good variety out there, used to love Brown Sugar in Soi Sarasin for the jazz sessions. Thing is these days I reside out of town so it's a bit of a bother trying to fight traffic and such that I don't bother any more.